On July 17, 2020, the Associated Press reported that the Pentagon had banned the display of the Confederate flag at US military facilities in such a way as to “avoid the anger” of President Trump, who had repeatedly defended the retention of monuments and institutions named in honor of Confederate figures:
After weeks of disputes, the Pentagon is banning displays of the Confederate flag on military installations, in a carefully worded policy that doesn’t mention the word ban or that specific flag. The policy, presented in a memorandum, was described by officials as a creative way to ban the display of the flag without openly contradicting or angering President Donald Trump, who has defended the rights of people to display it.
Signed by Defense Secretary Mark Esper, the note lists the types of flags that can be displayed on military installations. The Confederate flag is not among them, preventing its display without signaling it in a “ban.”
Soon after, social media users began circulating an image of an alleged Trump tweet in which he criticized the ban and allegedly stated that “The flag is a tremendous part of our history,” which is a “symbol of LOVE!” and that “The plantations kept black people employed and gave them free food and housing!”:
However, this image was only an invention intended to mock the CEO and not an actual tweet issued by Trump. Such a tweet did not appear on its Twitter timeline, was not recorded in databases tracking deleted tweets, and we found no other evidence that the alleged tweet existed or was retweeted on the Twitter platform.
